2010: RESOLUTIONS

1. Study Law…preferably join a part time/correspondence course in Business Law. Understanding business law is crucial in understanding business (especially in the industry I am in)

2. Visit a new place and also one of my past…with EM.

3. Get back to shape. It doesn’t feel good to carry anything unnecessary.

4. Continue reading books of all genres.

5. Post at least 100 posts in this blog during 2010.

6. Write at least one personal mail each day to someone I know. I don’t remember when I wrote a personal email for the last time. It’s disheartening to lose touch with the friends with time.

A SIMPLE DREAM

Riding bumpily on the muddy stretch of land which they call roads, we were busy confirming appointments with representatives of various oil companies who have a strong presence in this part of the world (Port Gentil in Gabon). I was accompanied by a Gabonese guy who was entrusted with the joint responsibility of driving me to the respective offices and be the French-English translator wherever required.

The meetings went well…enlightening to be precise. It’s a great experience to understand how culturally diverse people can be. But I don’t intend to go in-depth into how people work here. I will rather like to look back into the dreams of a simple African…or shall I say the dreams of a simple man!!!

This guy should be in his late thirties…its difficult to estimate the ages of people. A native of Togo, he had moved into Gabon in the pursuit of a better life. These days, he has been granted Gabonese citizenship and has well adopted to the nuances of the new culture. So have his wife and daughter.

He studied basic English in Togo and has transformed that little knowledge into his profession now. It really amazed me when I tried to map his fluency in English to his educational qualifications. Hardly a couple of years of English training and when I had asked this guy if he will guide me during the next three days he had responded “you are our customer and I will ensure that there will be no problems…”. What was striking is not the usage of words but the way they were pronounced….the kind of pronunciation which adds humility into the tone…which, according to me, is the most sophisticated form of delivering any language.

During our drives, we talked…I learned that his was a love marriage and that he had first met his wife in his Togo school as a kid. It’s always interesting when people open up and start speaking out…He spoke about his life in Gabon…the difficulties he had faced when he moved to Gabon for the first time….the kind of differential treatment which the outsiders are almost always exposed to. It took him years to reach a position of relative stability. The word stability is very dilute in its strength when used in Africa…yet he was quite happy with his stability in life.

This man…Francois…is now a proud possessor of a small land and he dreams to have his own home on this land someday. That day, he says, he will have his dream fulfilled….his dream of a family with a home.

(Sometimes, when I see people struggling so hard in life, I realize how privileged I am…just by being lucky enough)

EXPLORATION OF FAITH

The last few books I have read bear something in common. Though been authored from different parts of the globe, the central themes of these books tend to converge towards exploring the answers of the age old cryptic questions.

1. Many Lives Many Master by Dr. Brian Weiss
2. Illusions by Richard Bach
3. Life after Death by Deepak Chopra
4. The Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler
5. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

All these books have something in common. Each one of them is written by someone who has a scientific background. For example Dr. Brian Weiss and Howard Cutler are professional psychiatrists, while Deepak Chopra is a doctor. Richard Bach is an airforce pilot while Dan Brown settled down as a professional author after exploring careers in music and teaching.

Nevertheless, the idea is to stress the fact that all the authors are extremely well versed in science and they have tried to explore faith with a scientific background. The books are completely different in their context and approach. The Lost Symbol is one of the most exciting books I ever read, which so scintillatingly combines spirituality with entertainment. The Art of happiness is amongst the most practical books with a balanced approach. Life after Death is more textual in nature where Deepak Chopra provides his views on what happens after death with evidence from science and life. Illusions talk about the illusions that carve out reality. Many Lives Many Masters is about past life regression, which Dr. Weiss claims to be true.

I don’t know if the basic underlying theme of these books is true. But what if it’s close to truth….even a bit. The slightest belief in these things can bring about a paradigm shift in the way an individual perceives life.

ONE

"...each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one"

(The last line of "The five people you meet in Heaven")

IF

If market friendliness and market size bore positive correlation…..

(Lately, I have been involved in exploring country specific market opportunities for the services we provide. Stronger the exploration, higher the realisation that the above wish will remain only a wish)

CORPORATE VS. NONCORPORATE

CORPORATE ROLE

Beyond the management lingo, beyond the complicated corporate models and beyond all the glamour of a corporate role, sit five very basic tenets. Every possible corporate profile seems to fit into one of these broad divisions.
1. Generate business opportunities
2. Finance the creation/availability of products/services
3. Sell the products/services to earn revenues and profits
4. Maintain records of everything
5. Partner with relevant people/entities
The words highlighted have strong significance. While the processes may be different from one organization to other, but the end indicators used to measure the organizational success are often the same across organizations.

NON CORPORATE ROLE

I feel the non corporate role sits in point number 2 minus finance i.e. “creation/availability of products and services”. It can be in the form of technology/engineering or R&D or something similar.

FEELING HAPPY

Life is a travel (the philosophical cut)…..travel is life (that’s how life is these days for me). After a relatively long trip in South Africa and West Africa, I am back in Mumbai….So much things I feel I should type down in this blog…but it seems time is the culprit.

Books covered during this period….my experience in Africa….Mumbai….and most importantly feel like writing a long letter of gratitude and thankfulness to the unseen power that seems to control all the things happening in my little world. After staying away for almost two years from the sweetest person in my life, its so nice to feel the period of separation in its final phase…Three more months and life will change again…Remaining away from each other after marriage is not easy….not at all if you know that the period is for almost two years.

She handled her new life so well…Marriage and MBA…successfully managing even one of the two is never easy... Really admire the way she did it….
Never had I felt so happy in my life….not even with whatever little I have achieved till date…when she called me and said “I made it….thank you so much”. A job in Mumbai…her dream job…in finance…in investment banking/private equity…in a stable and reliable company…in the fragile economy...no joke….there has to be someone sitting right there….above us…and making all the decisions for us…